I misspelled Christopher McCandless’ name. His name often came to mind when ever I would be walking down the center of roads in Yellowstone keeping cars moving while people struggled to capture the wild beasts from their point and shoot cameras. Chris changed his name. He became something else. A disguise? An alter ego? Someone who over identified with the Batman myth. We do not recognize the power of our thoughts. The line of thinking today is ridiculously superior to the thinking of 100 years ago. Hell, just ten years ago we would have never dreamed of an iPad.

Who are we to criticize or even over-analyze another person’s failure? Supertramp died in the wilderness of Alaska, five miles from safety, because society did not convince him. Society appeared to be the worst of all evils. That money and power, power and money mean nothing. That the road held some sort of mythical quality. Roads are for journeys though, not destinations. People who feel they will somehow find inspiration from a distant land forget to enjoy the experience of traveling like philosophical nomads. This land is our land, remember that. Why can’t society be that way? If we really remembered that we were all in the same boat along this miracle called life, then things would change. We have phenomenal capacity to change for the better and inspire others to join as a community to advance our civilization to where it should be. Tickets to Hawaii are not that bad, but there are many places out there far more deserving of our attention. Leave the beach every once in a while when the jungle holds the treasure. When we look to meet the sun and follow the day through toward an uncertain future, let’s at least embrace the originality or find a way to do so. What did Jim Morrison used to sing about the west? There’s only so much time and we have so much freedom to do all the things we could dream of that are not available on the shelves of a local corporate owned merchant shop. America does have a dream, and we all have our own variation of this concept. The dream is falling away from many who do not feel that success and happiness comes from material gains. The global economy lives off growth and the more people who enter the game, the greater the damage and over consumption of the Earth’s resources. Think about it and realize how insane it is to blindly be part of a system on the eve of destruction. Get on the road and see this system of America, how similar we all are, how different the circumstances, how beautiful the land, and the freedom, the freedom to believe in the ability to change. We all have a future and do not have to worry about our past. The present is here right now and all that matters is what you think after reading this sentence.